Month: December 2015

I bought my 3 family house in July and have lived here since. I’m not doing any illegal activity. Besides maybe my mortgage lender, I have no idea why anyone would be taking pictures of my house. Any ideas?

Yet another interesting headline in the world of health and well-being. Netflix And Chew: How Binge Watching Affects Our Eating Habits
Lots of research suggests munching while watching TV promotes mindless eating. Overall viewing time is a key factor. But the genre of what you are watching may also influence how much you consume.

Hello thank you in advance for reading this post and responses.My wife and I just closed on our house a couple weeks ago and moved in Sunday right after Christmas. The house is pretty new built in 2012 and in a small neighborhood kind of near the country. Anyways our first night was fine but the second night we heard scratching above our bedroom. The next day we had a guy come out and check our attic and he said it was obvious there were rats living there. He said he counted 16 entries into the house and there was a “highway” created in our insulation for the rats to move through. He quoted us 1500 to set traps and seal all the holes. We were furious. We called our inspector to see why he hadn’t caught this and he stated he wasn’t liable for checking for rats and to go to the seller because the seller has to disclose information about rats which he didn’t. I don’t know about you but I think it would be a big thing to know that the home you’re buying and moving your family and kids into has a rat problem. My question is how can we get the sellers to pay for an obvious rat problem not disclosed to us at all? 1500 is a lot of money to drop on a problem we don’t think we are liable for. Please helpTLDR: rat problem not disclosed by seller and not found in inspection. What can we do?

I have a smallish half bath close in my converted garage. I’ve set the garage up to be fairly moisture friendly since it’s the go to area once people get out of the pool.I’d like to take this half bath amd make it a full one, but space is super tight, hence the wetroom idea.I know they aren’t common in the US, so would it scare you off to see the second bathroom be a complete shower? I should have enough room to glass off the toilet area, so the tp doesn’t get wet.

Hello all, I’ve recently gained interest in real estate so I decided to read Lindahl’s book from the FAQ. I need some clarification though regarding this excerpt : “In very general terms, they expect first-year cash returns to range from 7 to 10 percent or more; and they want to see annualized returns after the resale to be 20 to 25 percent and even higher”If an investor gives me $100k as a down payment does this mean that for the next 5 to 7 years they expect between $7k and $10k before taxes throughout the year?Also, What does Lindahl mean by 20-25% annualized returns after the resale?I know that I still have a lot to learn, any help would be appreciated(may or may not be a pun)!

Hello – looking for some quick advice on whether or not it’s worth hiring a professional. We purchased our home in September of this year. The home was built in 2008 and only had one owner, the seller who we purchased from. In an unseasonably warm winter, a 5″ rainstorm brought a host of issues to our attention that seem impossible to be all brand new. Here are some facts -The seller listed the home on June 19, 2015. June in middle Indiana saw tremendous rainfall – nearly 7.5 inches in the month.The seller checked the ‘No’ box in regards to any previous water damage to the home. He said there was nothing to disclose. Form on record.We’d originally scheduled the home inspection for July 11, but were told (on July 9) the seller couldn’t accommodate and had to reschedule to July 20. July 7-9 saw more heavy rainfall around 1.25″.During inspection, there were box fans and a dehumidifier in the unfinished basement. No water damage visible at the time.The day after close, the south side of the house flooded due to a ruptured irrigation line. It had most likely been hit with a weed wacker/lawn mover. When the seller came over that day to pick up his final things, he said he’d never seen the water before. There were lawn mover tracks in the mud.We were immediately greeted by new neighbors happy to see him go. He never raked his leaves, kept up his yard, or shoveled the sidewalks as mandated by the HOA.After this crazy December rainstorm, we had some major issues:A. An overhead leak in the basement coming in and splashing on the wood and insulation. Above it, on the main floor, is an exterior door.B. Water coming into the house through the baseboards on the main floorC. Discoloration of the basement walls making them appear damp and what looks to be a small, pointy buckling in the middle of the concrete wall.We have a contractor coming on Monday to look everything over, but our gut feeling is that the seller failed to disclose some serious issues with the home and got out when things got bad. He moved 2 miles away into a brand new home with the same number of bedrooms.Of course, we can’t prove he had any knowledge, but this is a lot of coincidences.Any help would be greatly appreciated.Thank you.

I own a property (rural, 5 acres) that consists of a very large barn/garage with living quarters. I currently live on the property and am looking into offering the barn for party/event rental. Aside from what amenities I might provide, what legal or regulatory considerations do I need to consider, remember, or look into?A few questions to start…Restrictions on number of cars parking on the lot?Can renter bring their own alcohol to distribute at event?Can I continue to live in the property if one portion is used for rental?Any information or experiences you can provide will be appreciated.

I have a friend who is a senior, looking to buy property in a specific county in Florida. He is not techsavvy in the slightest, so I would like to give him a print-out of properties available in his price range. Is there any way I can order a catalog of property listings from Florida and have it shipped in the mail?

My father just bought his first set of rental property consisting of a total of 14 units. My sister (who pushed my dad to buy this) wants to go with her realtor (and personal friend–someone she met about a month ago) as the property manager. My dad had some concerns and asked me to check everything out. I know very little about real estate but have a background in finance and law (thus I am very cautious).Her realtor has had his license for a month and does not have any staff, but is willing to work “really hard” and do everything necessary to maintain the property. I imagine there are countless legal requirements, obstacles, and curve-balls involved in this type of endeavor that an established and experienced company would be able to deal with more efficiently.To further complicate matters, the guy seems a bit unpredictable. He has a lengthy post on facebook talking about being unemployed, not being able to pay his water/electric bills, contemplating suicide, pooping in the woods for 8 months, etc… He also agreed to let us into the property without him, but told us not to tell anyone because he could lose his license. My sister is very defensive of him; so I need a practical way to relate this to her.Am I wrong to worry? How much damage could a negligent manager do (if it turns out that way)? What advantages will management companies have over a solo-practitioner who is new to this line of work? Any other insight would be greatly appreciated.Please let me know what you think. Thanks Reddit!

We are buying and selling, closing 1/29/16. We live in PA, so who knows what will happen with the weather.Is it unreasonable to ask the sellers (who already moved out into their other home), if we can move things in prior? If that is unacceptable, would it be reasonable to at least have things moved in only to the garage?Curious on realtor thoughts.